Innovative Hardware Technologies for Electromagnetic Attack Rejection in Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS) Radars

Under this STTR Imaging Systems Technology (IST) will apply novel Plasma-shell technology and expertise with gas plasma systems to shield and protect BMDS Radar. Plasma-shells are tiny hollow gas encapsulating shells. When energy is applied across the shell, the gas inside ionizes into a plasma. Theory of plasma-electromagnetic (EM) field interaction shows that, under appropriate conditions, plasma can be very effective in providing protection against High Power Microwave (HPM) and Ultra Wide Band (UWB) attacks. Currently, the only effective shielding against these attacks is a plasma based waveguide limiter. These limiters, while effective, are not universally applicable to all devices that may be subject to such threats as not all components of BMDS radar are waveguide fed. To be universally applicable to all sensitive electronics, there exists the need for effective limiter concepts that can be mounted on a printed circuit-board and be integrated into existing radar structures including radomes.